RESEARCH company Oxford GlycoSciences has signed a £16.6m five-year research deal with a US company to breed a new generation of plant seeds, writes Maggie Hartford.

As well as an upfront payment of £7.7m, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, which specialises in the genetics of corn, will fund research and development costs and make additional payments if certain milestones are reached.

Researchers will use OGS's 'proteomics' technology and Pioneer's plant gene database to discover genes important for improving agricultural seeds. OGS will build databases of the proteins produced by the genes.

The company, based at Abingdon Science Park, also announced an increased loss of £4.7m for the six months to June 30, compared with last year's figure of £3.8m. However, it has cash balances of £37.8m.

It has two drugs in clinical trials - one to treat the rare but life-threatening illness Gaucher's Disease and another which is a possible treatment for liver cancer.

But its main strength is the 'proteomics' technology, which allows researchers to pinpoint specific proteins responsible for development of disease. Since last year staff numbers have risen from 56 to 117 and are expected to reach 140 by Christmas. Tony Cavalieri, Pioneer vice-president, said: "OGS will add an important new dimension to our established genomics programmes."

OGS chief executive Michael Kranda said: "This convergence of genomics and proteomics, which is already being successfully applied in the pharmaceutical industry, will provide Pioneer with a unique advantage in the race to match gene and protein expression profiles with important traits."

The two companies said they expected to create a new generation of seed products by finding new protein targets to improve crops and make products that could benefit the environment.

Commenting on the financial results, Mr Kranda said: "We believe that the group's technology and leading position in the field of proteomics has received external verification in the best way possible - through signing collaborations with top echelon partners."

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